Maladies spreading across America: Political correctness, equity and diversity
By Robert Pembroke
Political correctness in preschool is “ridiculous.” That’s the word my wife used when I mentioned that a preschool in Massachusetts won’t allow its 3- and 4-year-old students to use the term “best friend.”
According to The Washington Post, when a teacher at the Pentucket Workshop Preschool in Georgetown, Massachusetts — the home of Elizabeth Warren — hears a child use the term “best friend,” the kid is told to stop using the phrase. According to the Post article, a letter is then sent home to the parents that says, “It has been our experience … that the use of the term ‘best friend,’ even when used in a loving way, can lead other children to feel excluded.”
I had a best friend at the age of 4 and his name was Mike. My wife had a best friend at the age of 4 and her name was Cookie. All of our children had best friends at the age of 4 but I can’t recall their names. None of us excluded other children or adults from being our friends.
Everyone needs friends and I believe they also need a best friend. In my case, my best friend is my wife. Is there really any difference between a best friend of a four-year-old or a best friend of an adult? No, there isn’t. Through the decades, I have been comforted by, listened to and have heard the variances of my best friends. I would not have it any other way.
Rightfully so, some parents of the preschoolers are very upset and voting with their pocket books. They are removing their children from the Pentucket Workshop Preschool and searching for other schools. I would suggest they investigate the Best Friends Preschool in Wareham, Massachusetts. It’s just 83.5 miles away.
The administrator of the Georgetown preschool thinks it is up to the school to change the behavior of the children. I can see the need for changing the behavior of children who are bullying other children or stealing from them, but not changing behavior when it comes to best friends. For goodness sake, let the kids just be kids for a little while.
Hopefully, what is happening in Georgetown, Massachusetts, is an isolated incident. But the things that are happening in America concerning equity and diversity are not isolated incidents.
If you are the average wage earner at Walmart, it will take you 785 years to earn the same amount as the Walmart CEO earns in one year. Is this unreasonable compensation? Well, your guess is as good as mine.
Years ago, I was audited by the IRS for having compensation that was five times more than my average employee. The company was not fined because I was able to prove that I earned a lot of profit for our company with my own personal sales and that I was the decision maker at the shop — things that are kind of critical when it comes to employees' pay.
When it comes to the glass ceiling situation, according to my libertarian instincts, my position is that managers should earn the right to be managers. The diversity wackos disagree and are causing a lot of damage to our country.
Take, for instance, what is happening at the University of Utah. The university has a department called the Office of Equity and Diversity which employs 35 people — and each of the other 99 departments have staff assigned to equity and diversity. All told, this is a huge expense that raises the cost of tuition for university students.
Do Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson use the civil rights issue to put shekels in their pockets? You bet they do. Do administrators at the University of Utah use equity and diversity as issues to put shekels in their pockets? You bet they do.
Robert Pembroke is the former chairman and CEO of Pembroke’s Inc. in Salt Lake City.